Condos Carefully Screen Prospective Renters

Selfish people who have parties all night are what condominium owners don`t want in their complexes.

So nearly every southwest Broward County condominium association screens prospective renters in an attempt to find out whether they will make good neighbors.

Committees don`t reject many prospective tenants.

``I don`t think we`ve ever turned down anybody,`` said Dr. Harry J. Topolsky, president of the association at Park Place in Pembroke Pines. ``People who own here know our rules and regulations and only present us with (prospective tenants) who comply with our by-laws.``

At Hollybrook, another large complex, the committee has rejected only one or two applicants in the past 11 years, according to Albert Wattenberg, chairman of the seven-member Sales & Rental Approval Committee. He wouldn`t give the reasons. The committee primarily checks to make sure prospective tenants don`t have young children and pets, both banned by the condo`s by-laws.

``You also try to size up a person when you meet with them,`` Wattenberg said.

One thing the committee doesn`t check is the person`s finances.

``We don`t worry about financial responsibility,`` he said. ``That`s the responsibility of the unit owner.``

At the Gardens of Bonaventure Unit 14 East, the company that manages the complex checks out prospective renters.

``We expect several letters of recommendation,`` said Lori Schiller, the association vice president.

The primary concern of the association is that the renter complies with the bylaws, including rules prohibiting children under 14, pets, commerical vehicles and unrelated family members living with tenants.

At Colony Point, as at many condos, the rental committee has a private firm investigate prospective tenants. Renters Reference of Florida, a Hollywood firm that performs the service for 500 condos in Broward, Palm Beach and Dade counties, is one such firm, according to its president, Warren Plant.

Plant, who said his firm is the only one geared to condominiums, seeks to predict what kind of neighbor the rental applicant will be.

``Most applicants are rejected because of past behavior where they lived, or we find they aren`t qualified under the association`s bylaws because they have children, a pet or operate a business out of their homes,`` he said.

``In some instances we find falsification or misrepresentation on an application, such as saying they work at (a particular business) and (the business) never heard of them.``

He said no figures are available on the number of applicants rejected by associations.

``As a whole, however, most people are truthful,`` he said. ``But associations want to be careful because the one who doesn`t check out can make life miserable for others.``

The bad tenant also can be expensive to his neighbors.

``To make the tenant comply with their rules, the associations have to go after the landlord who probably lives out of the country. It can take up to 1 1/2 years to litigate against a unit owner to force him to remove his tenant,`` Plant said.

To give themselves more clout, associations recently started requiring owners to give them authority to take action against tenants.